Even before the first Ford F-150 all-aluminum-body trucks started rolling off the production line and into showrooms late last year the buzz was BIG. Sales so far are living up to expectations--in January 2015, Ford dealers moved 54,370 units (Source:
Fortune.com). They are, as Ford CFO Bob Shanks told AutoNews.com, “flying off the lots.” (Source:
AutoNews.com)
Although we won’t have a realistic handle on how successful
the new Ford F-150 is until later this summer, it’s probably safe to say it will continue Ford’s decades-long run as the top-selling U.S. truck of all time. That means, before long, every body shop in America will be dealing first-hand with the unique repair protocols aluminum-bodied vehicles require.
One of the biggest challenges will be accurately estimating labor for a process that is new to for most technicians. To make sure our customers have the most accurate labor times available, Mitchell went straight to the source, drawing on the long, close relationship we enjoy with OEMs like Ford.
Getting it right included several learning sessions for the entire team of Mitchell labor content specialists, a group of collision industry veterans with years of body repair experience:
- The team visited the ProSpot factory, one of only two Ford approved manufacturers of the specialized welding and riveting tools needed to join aluminum panels. While there, they made repairs using the ProSpot equipment.
- The team attended and passed an eight-hour F-150 training program developed by Ford and I-CAR.
- After meeting with Ford engineers at the 2014 NACE trade conference, a representative of the team was invited to spend a day at Ford’s Paint & Body Technology Center where all F-150 labor and repair procedures are developed. They learned Ford recommended techniques for aluminum repair and did more hands-on practice repairs.
(Images above courtesy of Ford Motor Company)
Members of the team continued to correspond with Ford, collaborating on different repair scenarios and getting clarification on repair procedures, a process that yielded invaluable insights.
According to Greg Horn, Mitchell’s Vice President of Industry Relations, the high level of collaboration with Ford was one of the company’s most comprehensive ever, and right in line with Ford’s philosophy for the F-150. “Ford spent over five years developing this vehicle. It’s designed to be repairable, in such a way that there will be minimal impact to disrupting other parts of the vehicle to replace a single component. They’re very proud of the results and they wanted to partner with Mitchell to ensure that our efforts translated into fair, equitable labor times for component replacement.” said Horn.
 |
|
Horn pointed out that Ford has done something else that is unique in the industry. “When you order any major structural component for the new F-150 it comes with a sheet of instructions that essentially tell you ‘cut here, don’t cut here.’ Each sheet includes a detailed list of consumables down to the number of rivets needed. Our team had access to all those repair instruction sheets when developing labor times. There’s nothing else out there for this vehicle that’s as well researched or as accurate.”
Mitchell has released three
TechAdvisor collision repair articles for the new F-150 Regular, Crew, and Extended Cab models. Ford F-150 technical information including graphics, labor times and part pricing are currently available in the February release of
Mitchell Estimating.
Blog Post Contributors include:
Greg Horn - VP of Industry Relations, Mitchell International
Jerry Gastineau - Manager, Technical Writing, Mitchell International
Rick Hodawanus - Collision Labor Content Specialist, Mitchell International
If you enjoyed this blog post, you may also be interested in:
No comments:
Post a Comment